News

CEDIA 2016: The DaVinci Group Debuts Signature In-Wall Speakers

Designed for dedicated home-theater installations

The DaVinci Group(TDG) will be showingCEDIA-goers an upgraded version of its Signature-series high-performance architectural loudspeakers.

The Signature series was designed to address the emerging divide in dedicated home-theater installations. Up until now, most high-performance dedicated home theaters were designed based on one of two configurations: employing traditional box or tower speakers, or using standard in-ceiling or in-wall speakers.

But, according to DaVinci, for different reasons neither of these configurations are necessarily optimal. For example, when using traditional box or tower speakers for the dedicated theater, integrators often face challenges based on lack of space in the theater layout to allow for large freestanding floor speakers.

In the case of using typical in-ceiling or in-wall speakers for a dedicated home theater, the speakers often chosen were really designed for use in a distributed audio system. Most distributed audio systems are not for primary music listening, but rather, for atmospheric background music. This is a far different application than in a high-volume, dynamic movie theater environment, noted the company.

Because of the space utilization advantages of in-wall designs, TDG decided to solve the problem by developing a large-format in-wall speaker solution designed specifically for the dedicated home-theater environment. This solution, the Signature series, would bridge the gap between the typical distributed audio in-wall speaker and the floorstanding tower speaker.

First previewed at last year’s show, the Signature series was presented to dealers as an all-new product still in development that was targeted directly at the dedicated theater segment. The company sought dealer input both on the general viability of the concept and on the specific details of this tentative design.

Dealer response was overwhelmingly positive, with many offering suggestions on ways to further improve performance, aid install-ability, and fine tune the sound quality. TDG engineers took this feedback, along with ongoing lab and field testing, to create the new generation of Signature series that will be available in the near future.

“From the series’ preview last year and through ongoing discussions with more dealers in the ensuing months, we received hundreds of suggestions for ways to take our design and make it even better,” said Jeff Francisco, CEO/president of TDG. I’m pleased to say the result is the finest in-wall speaker system we’ve ever created at The DaVinci Group. We can’t wait to show our dealers this final version – incorporating many of their suggestions – which will be ready for installation in their finest high-end, high-performance dedicated home-theater projects very soon.”

TDG’s Signature series includes the IWLCR-88 in-wall LCR (left/center/right) full range speaker with dual 8-inch woofers; the WLCR-66 in-wall LCR full range speaker with dual 6-inch woofers; the IWS-210 in-wall subwoofer with dual 10-inch woofers; and the IWS-10 in-wall subwoofer with one 10-inch woofer.

Pricing and shipping dates will be announced at a future date. The DaVinci Group is in booth No. 1300.